THE NEW YORKER bound to be a priest. He was al- ways thinking of your good, and sometimes it made me so mad that 1 nearly hit him. Once, for in- stance, the two of us were in the grounds together, and 1 brought him around to the priests' garden. The priests had smashing apples of their own, and we never saw them, only what we could pinch. " K 0 " 1 O d eep nIX, now, sal. "What are you going to do?" he asked. "1 just want a few apples," 1 said, shinning up the wall. "Mick!" he wailed. "Do you mean steal them?" 1 didn't even bother to reply to that. 1 was now so obsessed with the idea of the apples that 1 didn't care what happened. "But, Mick, what'll 1 say if I'm caught " he cried. "Ah, say what you like." Then, as I was picking the ap- ples hastily, I heard him call again, and saw him looking over the wall with a distracted look. There were real tears in that fellow's eyes. By this time, I had stuffed my pockets and was beginning to put others insIde my pullover. "Mick, Mick, aren't you fin- ished yet?" he bawled. "Shut up and don't get us all caught, you fool!" I whispered back at him. "But, Mick, it's a sin." "It's a what?" "It's a sin. I know 'tis only venial, but you shouldn't do it." I didn't bother to reply to hIm, but I was raging mad. I coolly finished packing apples wherever I had room for them, and then got back over the wall. "Now, see here, Cummins," I said. "I don't want any more of your old talk. I'm going to do exactly what I like, and I'm not gOIng to be stopped by suckers lIke you." " B ., M o k " h O d . ut It s true, IC, e sal , wrIng- ing his hands. "It's a sin. You know it's a sin, and you'll have to tell it in confes- o " Slon. "I will not tell it in confession," I said. "And if I find you did, I'1I knock your blooming head off." I was so upset that I could hardly enjoy the apples. It wasn't worth it to me, I declare to God! B UT, all the same, we continued friends. E ery week, FrancIs got a parcel, and every week, I got some of it. It was a puzzle to me how he got so , ," .., i' 1 ....... .. lJ.... ( . 1 .,' " ,) '\. '" ',' t A . f ; * f ". ;" '. '"..)" ....j , " '0 " W,*, "" , Ø>. .- '"' h '0< x 0(" ^' !I>>. ,, ,?' ""1<" :-t.,.c. '" .; \,,.,.. "\> , ' ' '..... "- :. ,I --ß " . " ' t * .;." ,, ( ,1 :' Y> 4% \ ( ,..t " .... .. "" H t ".. ',ø <" w ' "', '" ", f: J l \, t " . " t t ... t J 4i... <" <>-' ' { '( "? /' :/, -'.:. <Co.>. .... ? , :" . :j"" ,' . ....J. "4'< '" Æ' ..' W' J. *' '$ v<" '" ", "You know, ['II bet Rubens would have loved me." . much, for none of the fellows I knew got a parcel oftener than once a month, and I hardly got one a term. Of course, his parents kept a little shop in the Main Street, so they wouldn't mind so much making up a parcel, and anyway they could get things for cost price, but even allowing for that it was remarkable the way they never forgot him, and were always thinking up new thIngs to send him. The previous Christmas, they had given him a piano accordion. It struck me as peculiar, because if they cared all that much for him, you'd think they would keep him at home, more particu- larly when he was an only child. It beat me to guess why they sent him away at all. A wild fellow like me, in a house with two other kids, you could see why . Mummy wouldn't want me around the place; besides that it was better for me to be at school. 1\ T the end of the term, Cummins' n. parents came in the car for him and I went back with them. I was lookIng forward to it a lot, but it wasn't much fun. His father was a quiet little man with a gray mustache and tin spectacles, and his mother a fat, roundy woman with an awful lot of old talk. Then, one day during the holidays, Susie and I went up to his place for tea. HIs father was behind the counter with his hat on his head. It was the first time I saw CummIns' toys, and they knocked me endwIse. There was a wonderful 37 ì '. , \ ." ::. f '" , ; ,'..- I #'